The present invention relates to an apparatus for winding video tape on reels of a cassette.
An apparatus for winding a long tape on reels of a video tape cassette and cutting a given length of the tape has been in actual use. However, in a conventional apparatus of this kind, although the tape is automatically wound and cut, reels cannot be automatically mounted on the winding apparatus, but rather they are manually mounted one by one. Therefore, the winding operation requires much manual labor.
Since video tape cassettes are produced and sold on a large scale, it is very important that the winding be carried out with high efficiency and a small number of workers.
Further, it is convenient that a pair of reels wound with video tape be transferred while they are positioned close to each other, both when they are directly set into a cassette case by the winding means and when they are mounted on a tray and transferred.
Usually, when a pair of reels is placed close to each other, a short reel tape preliminarily wound on the reels extends between them and the video tape to be wound on the reels is connected to this short reel tape, and then the rear end of the video tape is cut and connected with the reel tape.
However, it is disadvantageous that such operation of the mechanism is apt to lack sureness, take too much time and the efficiency is low.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for winding video tape on the reels of a cassette which are spaced from each other and by which the video tape to be wound is connected to the reels easily, surely and efficiently, and further in which there is provided a mechanism for removing a member for connecting the video tape out of the path of the reels being transferred relative to the apparatus so that the reels can be transferred rapidly and efficiently.